Robert Burns’ August 31 Associated Press article is entitled, “Bush Hears About the Strain on Troops.”The subtitle should read, “Bush Ignores Strain on Troops.”Or “Bush Does Not Care About the Strain on Troops.”

According to the Burns article, despite the military’s concern for the unprecedented stress forced on the soldiers and marines in Iraq, Bush remains stubbornly committed to his course.

Indications are that Bush intends to stick with his current approach, at least into 2008, despite persistent pressure from the Democrat-led Congress — including some prominent Republicans — to find a new course.

So, the troops of Rumsfeld’s army, the one he said he had to go to war with because he did not have the one he wanted to go to war with, went into war with body armor bought with their grandmother’s retirement funds if they had any at all.For a lie, for many lies, for the cherry-picked and manufactured intelligence of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, troops were sent, ill trained and ill protected and ill prepared for the sectarian violence unleashed and unplanned for by a bunch of criminally short-sighted neocons under the command of a coward and his henchmen who had no knowledge of the horrors of combat because they had refused to fight in another war of which they approved and in which they believed other men’s children should fight and die.And what of the scandal of the poor quality of care received by the returning wounded by a Veteran’s Administration shortchanged by the budget cuts of the administration of the “War President?” Care for the troops?There is absolutely no evidence that you, Mr. Bush or any of your henchmen ever supported or cared about the troops or their families.

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From the mouth of the great cowardly war president:

"The stakes in Iraq are too high and the consequences too grave for our security here at home to allow politics to harm the mission of our men and women in uniform," the president said in the statement. "It is my hope that we can put partisanship and politics behind us and commit to a common vision that will provide our troops what they need to succeed and secure our vital national interests in Iraq and around the world."

Politics?Partisanship?Hypocrisy drips like corruption from an infected wound, yet again from your petulant lips, Mr. Bush.There is no “mission of the men and women in uniform.”There is only your jaundiced and warped mission that has vastly increased the danger of terrorism and decreased our security at home. There is no common vision, Mr. President between irrational and cold-blooded war-mongering for control of the oil of the middle-east and the clear-eyed judgment of those of us living in the reality based world who can see the truth and can see through your lies.You have your five megabases in Iraq now from which you can launch attacks on Iran and next?Syria?And the bodies of innocent dead over which you climb to attain your goals?We care for them, Mr. President.We support and care for the troops.We want them out of the unwinnable hell of your war.We care for the innocent dead Iraqi’s.You don’t even count them.How can these two visions of the world be reconciled?By total capitulation of those dedicated to reality, sanity and human decency to total support of your twisted vision?I think not, Mr. Bush.I think not. And what about the assessment of this

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“General on the Ground,” Mr. Bush?

In a fresh sign of U.S. frustration with the Iraqi government in Baghdad, a senior U.S. commander said in an Associated Press interview that he feels aggravated by the slow pace of action by Iraq's central government to ensure that its security forces are properly led, supplied and equipped on the battlefield. "I have not seen any improvement really in the year I've been here in that regard," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq. He said the Iraqi army is doing "pretty well" in fighting the insurgency alongside U.S. troops, but they are not getting sufficient support from Baghdad. "Progress is slower than it should be inside the (Iraqi) army in particular" with regard to proper support and direction from national leaders in Baghdad, Mixon said by telephone, adding that the problem lies in a combination of bureaucratic obstacles and sectarian-based decisions about army leadership appointments.

Whatever spin you, Mr. Bush, and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have already decided to put on “progress” in your dirty war, all objective, respectable and credible sources dispute.But, you will continue.You will have your war and your death and your destruction of more than your small mind can fathomfor as long and as for as many more deaths and maimings as you can lie and manipulate your country into allowing you to have.Are you paying attention to these military men Mr. Bush?It does not appear that you are.

The service chiefs, who have no command responsibilities, are charged with maintaining forces ready for combat and ensuring they have enough time for proper training. In that context the chiefs of the Army and Marine Corps have expressed concern that the troop buildup in Iraq come to an early end.

Mr. Bush, you have destroyed the military you claim to support.Doesn’t matter.You are getting what you want.What you monumentally lied to get.And you callously continue use the troops to further your base objectives.You not only use their lives and limbs and the happiness and security of their families in an illegal war, but you use them in your propaganda. AFTER physically abusing them, you use them to justify continuing to kill them by the thousands for what?For unending war for the profit of corporations whose bottom line depends on there always being a reason to manufacture and sell weapons.There is no end of war in your plans Mr. Bush.You are, “The War President.”In order for your ego to be satisfied you must be a war president for as long as the constitution allows you to be president.You don’t care about the troops Mr. War President.You obviously do not care about the troops.Or about the dead children of Iraq.Or about the destruction of the history of the cradle of civilization.You obviously do not have the depth of character to care.Those of us who do care are your enemies.You, yourself have described us as such.

And please shut the hell up about “democracy and freedom in Iraq.”You are making us sick.

Sheila Jackson: Mother of two, grandmother of four, Air Force Veteran, two college degrees, an Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies obtained at the age of sixty (more...)

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